Analysis of Bill C-51

[Important Changes to Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Law]

While many Canadians bask in the misconception that we are safe from terrorists, the truth becomes more evident in the news each day. Rather it is the cold blooded murder of two Canadian military personnel on our soil, an armed jihadist on parliament, an interrupted scheme to blow up a passenger train or any of a myriad of other “near misses” aimed at terrorizing Canadians – the ugly truth is that we have (walking among us) a growing number of individuals intent on enacting jihad right here in Canada.

In many ways, we have been naive, immature and in denial that this millennium is one of unheralded religious warfare aimed at anyone who does not accept Islam. The awful truth is that even many devout Muslims who refuse to accept “jihad” are also become their targets.

The Canadian multi-cultural model, in and of itself presents a very easy target for those that wish to infiltrate and wage terror inside of Canada. We are tolerant – to a fault. Our legal system creates a wonderful net of protections for law-abiding folks and also for those who have outrageous goals of murder and destruction in mind.

Much has been discussed about Canada’s Bill C-51. I am never one to accept (at face value) much of what any reporter or journalist has to say about important issues that affect my life, my family or my friends. I have always done well by reading the source documents and forming my very own conclusions.

C-51 is a positive step in the right direction. In fact, it probably should have gone even further. For example, it eases the transfer of data between various government agencies. Canada Revenue files contain (not only) income tax information but are a gold mine of data relating to large scale off-shore financial transactions pertaining to mysterious funds arriving into the bank accounts of Canadian (citizens or residents). I foolishly believed that Revenue Canada would obviously share information with Citizenship and Immigration and/or passport officials. To do less would amount to having a fist fight with one hand tied behind your back.

A secure Air Travelling section of the new act (C-51) would enable Canadian security officials to make it unlikely that a terrorist could fly into known conflict regions such as Syria to enlist with ISIS. I suspect that three (Muslim) families in Canada’s west would applaud this new power. Had it been enacted earlier, the three families would be much less worrisome about the safety of their wayward daughters.

Similarly, C-51 embraces (long overdue) changes to Canada’s Criminal Code enabling law officials to make preventative arrests for planned terror activities. Again, this is something that is LONG overdue. It is high time that the “good-guys” were able to act in a preventative nature instead of (after-the-fact) making arrests.

One of the excellent parts of C-51 enable Canadian Security apparatus to become disruptive by interfering with the travel plans of terrorists or the movement of instruments of terror. I can see absolutely no harm in leaking intercepted terror related communications to immediate families of terrorists inside of Canada. Who knows? Perhaps families can talk some sense into the brains of wanna-be-terrorists”

Lastly, Canada has played nice in the sand-box for too long. When a suspect terrorist is identified by Canada Immigration, it has long been the practice of that department to intervene in Immigration hearings and cases involving the miscreant. However, such interventions had always been “in camera” meaning that law officials were never informed of the evidence or testimonies that took place at the hearings. That changes with C-51 and the information is now to become readily available.

Despite the mamby-pamby hand-wringing of Thomas Mulcair and his NDP caucus, these changes are way overdue.

I often wonder: if Mulcair and his cronies are not worried about Canadians and Canadian safety; who are they representing?

We live in a much more complex world than Mulcair chooses to admit.

Hey, Tom: why not get your kids to sign up for a hitch in Canada’s Armed Forces? You’re kidding yourself IF you think your son in Sûreté du Québec ( SQ ) knows anything about terrorism. You, of all people (being a dual citizen of France and Canada) should not need to be reminded about the events surrounding Charlie Hebdo attacks that left 17 Parisians dead.

It is high time to stop opposing for the sake of only being contrary.

Copyright Thunderbird Rising 2015

The above article is copyrighted. You may use, copy or distribute this article conditional on attributing your source (Thunderbird Rising) and the author (Lloyd Fournier)

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Published by: lloydfournier

Lloyd is the founder of Thunderbird Rising (Thunderbird rising.com) and the recent recipient of a Humanitarian Award, an author (novels) and a freelance writer. His drill down style of writing is a throw back to classic journalism - completely objective and well researched. His work presents the reader opportunity to rethink issues.
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One thought on “Analysis of Bill C-51”

The present NDP Leader is the only person willing to blindly pretend that domestic risk do not exist and foolishly is fighting to stop this legislation. Of all people, Mr. Mulcair (a citizen of France) ought to know better. How quickly he is prepared brush aside the lesson from the Charlie Hebdo carnage in Paris in January of this year. Could he be playing politics and attempting to gain votes by putting you and your children at risk?